Sunday, March 23, 2014

This is a very good tutorial to add some wonderful sparkling colours to some boring clear glass eyes for your teddy bear... :)

The materials you will need are:

A pair of clear glass eyes of your choice

Glittery or shimmer nail polish in the colour of your choice (I've used blue shimmer)

Gold or silver acrylic paint (I've used gold)

Black acrylic paint

Some 'Blue Tack' or some plasticine (to hold the eyes to the surface you'll be working on)

A fine liner brush and a flat brush

Use a small amount of Blue Tack to hold each eye to the bench or work surface

With the help of a liner brush, paint fine lines with gold paint on the back of the eyes. Let it dry completely.

Now paint the entire back of the eye with the nail polish of your choice (blue in my case). Let it dry.

Apply a second coat of nail polish to give the eyes good coverage and bring out the colour of the eyes. Let it dry thoroughly.

With a flat brush and black acrylic paint, paint the back of the eyes. Let the paint dry.

To protect the work you've done, paint the back of the eyes with clear nail polish and let it dry.

And voila!

You can paint clear glass eyes with any colour nail polish you wish, but you can also substitute the colour nail polish by painting the eyes with some white PVA glue, letting it dry and then brush some iridescent eye shadow powder over the dry PVA. Then protect the colour with some clear nail polish.

It's been a while since I posted anything here, but I'm back and ready to show you how to create some wonderful accessories for your bears!

This is a bag to carry cookies, but it can simply be change to carry anything you'd like to put in it... potpourri, flowers, toys, wrapped gifts, etc.

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Materials needed:

20cm x 10cm of felt or windcheater fabric

A small scrap of calico or cotton fabric (for the sign)

Thread to match fabric

No 5 black or brown perle cotton

2 small wooden beads

Polyester stuffing

Dark colour Copic marker and airbrushing kit (optional)

Cream and chocolate colour Fimo or Sculpey modelling clay

Multi-coloured micro beads (can be found in scrapbooking or nails stores)

Sharp knife

Old toothbrush

Rolling pin or something round to roll out the clay with

An oven to cook the clay in

First cut the fabric chosen for the bag and place it on a plastic bag or newspaper which you can discard latter (this is to protect the area you're working on)

Airbrush one of the longer sides of the fabric. This will be the top of the bag (this step is optional). Set aside.

Cut a piece of calico or cotton fabric in a rectangular shape and pull some threads all around to fray the fabric. Pin corners onto a cork tile or something that will make the fabric steady. Write the word 'COOKIES' or 'TOYS' or anything you would like the bag to carry, with a permanent marking en or the fine tip of a Copic marker pen.

Place the cotton sign as shown on the photo below, and with needle and thread, run a running stitch around the sign to hold it to the bag fabric

With wrong sides of the fabric facing, sew bag sides from top to bottom

Still with wrong sides of the fabric facing, move the seam you've just made to the middle back of the bag and sew bottom of the bag from side to side.

Run a running stitch at the top of the bag with needle and perle cotton thread, meeting at the front of the bag.

Add a wooden bead at each end of the perle cotton thread and make a couple of knots so the beads don't slide off. Fray the perle cotton thread's ends.

Your bag is now finished... :)

Now for the Cookies!!!

Start with a small piece of chocolate colour modelling clay. Knead it till soft and roll it into a ball.

Flatten it with the help of a rolling pin or something like it till the clay is about 2mm thin.

Cut as shown below with a sharp knife or blade... there is no specific shape to follow as long as he pieces are somehow thin strips.

Then cut the strips into smaller pieces (this will be the chocolate bits on your cookies). Set aside.

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About Me

My name is Monica Spicer and I have been designing and having fun creating bears since the early 1990's.
I have learned a lot in these past years and as much as I would like to travel and teach around the world, I find I'm not able to because of health reasons, so the next best thing is to share my knowledge with all of you through the wonders of the internet… :0)
These are the free 'on line tutorials' everyone has been asking for.
I've decided to list them here to make it easier to download whenever you need them, without having to email me and ask for them to be sent by email.
I do hope you'll find them useful and make your bear making a lot easier and enjoyable.
Please feel free to email me with any questions you might have, as I'll be only to happy to help you out if I can... :0)